"Xenophonie"

LP + CD

The Düsseldorf band fresh and relaxed. Whenever there's talk about the best German-language album of all time, Fehlfarben's 'Monarchie und Alltag' ('Monarchy and Everyday Life') often heads the list. This album came out in 1980. Since then a lot of water has flowed down the Rhine, and Peter Hein has worn 'the early work around his neck like a millstone'.

At least so he sings on the song 'TCM (Polychemie)' on this album. Hein has a legitimate complaint. Now on 'Xenophonie' the wrong colors seem incredibly fresh. The opening track 'Decade 2' starts off with an insane riff; a few seconds later we hear Peter Hein's very expressive voice singing in his typical masterful way: urgent, practical and yet full of poetry and melancholy.

In all seriousness, there is no shortage of looseness here and this hasn't been heard since the release of 'Resistance' by Family 5. 'Herbstwind' (autumn wind), the last, almost 10 min. long piece on the album transforms the Fehlfarben for the Riders on the Storm, before a Fortuna-Düsseldorf scarf sweeps aside the beautiful apparition.